Rancho Cotate 5K Walkathon ON THE MARKET no match in Willits for Guide to local real estate for Ukiah Boys and Girls ...................................Inside ..........Page A-7 ............Page A-3 INSIDE Mendocino County’s World briefly The Ukiah local newspaper .......Page A-2 Tomorrow: Breezy and cool with rain 7 58551 69301 0 FRIDAY April 14, 2006 50 cents tax included DAILY JOURNAL ukiahdailyjournal.com 40 pages, Volume 148 Number 5 email: [email protected] EARLY MORNING FIGHT TURNS DEADLY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Man beat, stabbed, run over County Three young people arrested on suspicion attorneys of killing 21-year-old By BEN BROWN The Daily Journal petition A physical altercation turned fatal early Thursday morning in the parking lot of the Happiness Is club on Lake Mendocino Drive, where gets OK David J. Garcia, 21, of Ukiah, was beat, stabbed and hit by a car. Lawyers in DA’s Office, Three suspects, Cassandra other county offices Hoefer, 18, and John G. Mendoza, 21, of Ukiah, and Richard Hill, 18, move closer to of Willits, have been arrested on civil servant status suspicion of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection By BEN BROWN with the attack on Garcia. The Daily Journal According to the police report, The county Board of Supervisors sheriff’s deputies and officers of the approved a petition Tuesday to form California Highway Patrol respond- the Mendocino County Public ed to a call of hit-and-run at 311 Attorneys Association. Lake Mendocino Drive at 3:15 a.m. The formation of the association Thursday. put county employed attorneys one Police had been contacted by step closer to civil servant status, Hoefer, who told them she had had said Matthew Finnegan, president of the association. an argument with Garcia, with Isaac Eckel/The Daily Journal whom she is acquainted, in the Mendocino County sheriff’s detectives, along with deputies and Highway Patrol personnel, The association will act as a sin- parking lot of the Happiness Is club search the area where the body of David Garcia was found early Thursday morning. gle bargaining unit for attorneys in and that she struck him with her car the Mendocino County District while trying to flee. Hoefer called Attorney’s Office, the Public law enforcement from her resi- Garcia was harassing Hoefer before Defenders Office, the Alternate dence. the fight began, Broin said. Defenders Office and the Child A preliminary investigation Hoefer and Mendoza were locat- Support Attorneys Office. revealed Garcia had been injured ed shortly after the incident and Finnegan said the formation of a before being struck by the car. arrested. Hill turned himself in to single bargaining unit is an essential Interviews with witnesses and the sheriff’s deputies, Broin said. step toward reclassifying attorneys suspects revealed a different story. An autopsy is being performed to in those offices as civil servants. According to the report, Garcia determine a final cause of death. First District Supervisor Mike had been involved in a fight with Broin said Garcia most likely died Delbar asked that the topic be Hill and Mendoza during which of his stab wounds. Garcia was beaten and stabbed, and The three suspects are each being See ATTORNEYS, Page A-13 then the suspects reportedly hit held at the county jail on $525,000 Garcia with the car as they fled the bond. Ben Brown can be reached at scene. Garcia walked a short dis- [email protected]. GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS tance to the Happiness Is trailer park, where he died. “Basically, he was beaten and stabbed and then hit with a vehicle,” Police crime scene tape cir- Governor said Mendocino County acting cles the parking lot of the Sheriff Kevin Broin. Happiness Is Club on Lake According to suspect statements, Mendocino Drive. backs off COMMUNITY HEALTH STATUS REPORT curbs on Birth rate up locally, but still lower than statewide warming By IAN HOFFMAN By LAURA CLARK Births to white, non-Hispanic women The Oakland Tribune The Daily Journal decreased from 56.9 percent of the total in 2000 to ‘There’s more information available to teens to SAN FRANCISCO -- After push- The birth rate in Mendocino County has 54.2 percent in 2004; births to women of Hispanic ing the nation’s most aggressive remained lower than the statewide rate, according ethnicity increased from 34.5 percent in 2000 to protect themselves from getting pregnant and goals for cutting greenhouse gases, to the 2006 Mendocino County Community 36.7 percent in 2004, according to the report. how to be responsible and not have sex at a Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this Health Status Report. Births to Native American women varied from week disappointed many environ- With that said, the birth rate of Mendocino a low of 5.9 percent in 2001 to a high of 7.4 per- young age, and if someone does become mentalists by backing a go-slow County, “defined as the number of live births per cent in 2004, the report states. approach, making industry report its 1,000 total population, ... has increased from 11.5 pregnant there are support services available.’ greenhouse emissions but not cap- in 2001 to 12.4 in 2003,” the report states in a sec- Teen birth rate falls ping those emissions until 2010. tion covering the health status of mothers and LINDA NAGEL, Public Health Department “I think we should start without The teen birth rate is also down -- countywide infants. from the state,” Nagel said. “We are so happy to the caps,” Schwarzenegger said in a It’s unknown why the birth rate locally is below and statewide, according to the report. hearing on greenhouse-gas reduc- “Over the past five years, the county and state see the teen birth rate has been dropping slowly state averages, according to Linda Nagel, maternal over the years,” she said, noting she can’t say for tions at San Francisco City Hall. “I child and adolescent health director at the teen birth rates have been generally dropping, and think we can accomplish a lot with- Mendocino County Public Health Department. the county rates are not significantly different See BIRTHS, Page A-13 out the caps. I think with the caps we could really scare the business community and they might leave California.” Counties may team up to offer children’s insurance Environmentalists said setting a ceiling on releases of greenhouse By SARA WATSON ARTHURS The work includes several parts: First, getting Kristen Gardner, project coordinator for Health gases was essential for getting The Eureka Times-Standard those children who qualify for state-subsidized Insurance For All-Mendocino, said small counties industry to buy cleaner technologies Del Norte County couldn’t pay for a children’s Medi-Cal or Healthy Families insurance signed have different needs than large ones. For example, and build more energy-efficient health insurance program on its own, but by team- up. outreach to those families who qualify for state- plants. ing up with Mendocino County it might be able For children whose families earn too much subsidized programs is done on a broader scale in “What we’re hearing today is a to, officials announced this week. money to qualify for these programs but don’t large urban counties than in areas like Mendocino lot of talk and no action,” said Bill County officials and health care advocates have health insurance through their employer, County, where “you have to really target the exact McGalvern of the Sierra Club. from both counties, and Humboldt County, gath- counties across California are creating their own families,” she said. Others said it probably would ered at a conference on children’s health insur- health insurance packages. By joining together, The conference Monday was a chance for lead- take years for California to set up a ance in Fortuna. Coalitions in each county -- and officials said, rural communities will be better ers in each county’s initiative to update their regulatory cap, as well as a carbon many others across California -- are in the midst able to do so. neighbors. The afternoon concluded with discus- market so that hundreds of power of efforts to ensure health insurance coverage for “Together, we could do some sort of insurance all county children. pool,” Del Norte Supervisor Dave Finigan said. See INSURANCE, Page A-13 See WARMING, Page A-13 A-2 – FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2006 DAILY DIGEST Editor: Jody Martinez, 468-3517 The Ukiah Daily Journal [email protected] on suspicion of causing cor- FUNERAL NOTICES CORRECTIONS poral injury to a spouse and The Ukiah Daily Journal reserves this violating parole at 9:32 a.m. space to correct errors or make clarifications [\ took the adventure of her her signature phrases. humbleness, wisdom, to news articles. Significant errors in obitu- Wednesday. life when she and Bob She is survived by her thoughtfulness, love and ary notices or birth announcements will moved to Ponape in the sister Yolanda McTague; compassion. result in reprinting the entire article. Errors Eastern Caroline Islands. her daughter Lisa Ray Kelly Geraldine is survived by may be reported to the editor, 468-3526. CHP REPORTS From there, she enjoyed and son-in-law Walter her daughters and son-in- The following were traveling to many islands in Kelly; her goddaughter Lori laws Gail and August Louie LOTTERY NUMBERS compiled from reports the Eastern Pacific, to Watt Vest (now residing in of Hayward, Lujuana and prepared by the Califor- Japan and Korea. When Kobe, Japan), and many Pedro Galicia of Oroville, DAILY 3: night: 8, 3, 9. nia Highway Patrol: they returned to Ukiah in maternal family members. daughter Darla Benton of afternoon: 7, 3, 9.